Pixelfed, Federated Image Sharing

[blavkm]

@doodlemania2 thanks

[stantropics]

Thanks to @doodlemania2, @mehdi, @girish and everybody who has worked on this so far - it looks pretty good and I cannot wait to have it as an official app.

Just wanted to share my current experience and my thoughts with the community.
While testing it I found there are two aspects that can be improved:

1. Federation does not work and even configuring it in .env to

ACTIVITY_PUB=true
REMOTE_FOLLOW=true
ACTIVITYPUB_INBOX=true
ACTIVITYPUB_SHAREDINBOX=true

doesn't seem to make it work. I'm tinkering with it but haven't found a solution so far.

2. .env should be placed somewhere under /app/data so it can be edited by the user (e.g. for changing the instance name, activating/deactivating ActivityPub, setting max filesize etc.).

Unfortunately, something like

COPY .env /app/data/storage/config/.env
RUN ln -fs /app/data/storage/config/.env /app/code/pkg/.env

in the Dockerfile does not work. Pixelfed can't load the config correctly as it throws errors during startup.

[stantropics]

I solved issue number one today using those config parameters for AP:

## Activity Pub
ACTIVITY_PUB=true
AP_REMOTE_FOLLOW=true
AP_INBOX=true
AP_SHAREDINBOX=true
AP_OUTBOX=true
ATOM_FEEDS=true
NODEINFO=true
WEBFINGER=true

Furthermore I got the information that in ordner to make federation work you need to follow a person from another instance and a person of this instance need to follow you so the other instance knows about yours.

[girish]

@stantropics +1, will you be submitted a PR to @doodlemania2 's repo?

I am just finishing up metabase, I can look into getting pixelfed published after that.

[mehdi]

@stantropics said in Pixelfed, Federated Image Sharing:

Unfortunately, something like
COPY .env /app/data/storage/config/.env
RUN ln -fs /app/data/storage/config/.env /app/code/pkg/.env

in the Dockerfile does not work. Pixelfed can't load the config correctly as it throws errors during startup.

That is normal. As /app/data is a volume, it does not exist yet during build time, it is only there at runtime. So you cannot put stuff there in the dockerfile and expect it to be there. You can, however, do just the ln part, and do the copy as a cp in start.sh.

[stantropics]

@girish said in Pixelfed, Federated Image Sharing:

@stantropics +1, will you be submitted a PR to @doodlemania2 's repo?

This is now done.

@mehdi said in Pixelfed, Federated Image Sharing:

That is normal. As /app/data is a volume, it does not exist yet during build time, it is only there at runtime. So you cannot put stuff there in the dockerfile and expect it to be there. You can, however, do just the ln part, and do the copy as a cp in start.sh.

Makes sense! However, the code does work. When I do a cat /app/code/pkg/.env inside the apps terminal (in recovery mode as it won't start up) it prints the entire and correct config.
I have created this issue to work on it:
https://git.cloudron.io/doodlemania2/pixelfed/-/issues/1

If someone can help to move the config I would appreaciate it.

[girish]

@stantropics said in Pixelfed, Federated Image Sharing:

However, the code does work

Yes, that's because docker has a "feature" that if it copies files from the docker image into a volume on first run. So, if you put files in /app/data in Dockerfile, it gets copied over on first run into the /app/data volume. For cloudron packages, we don't use this feature (by convention) since this feature is kind of arcane.

[stantropics]

The genius @mehdi helped to finally get the config-problems solved. I have put everything in a MR under https://git.cloudron.io/doodlemania2/pixelfed/-/merge_requests/4

• Config rework
• Activity Pub activation
• Move config to /app/data

Now let's get this official

[scooke]

@doodlemania2 Just did it, worked well, thanks. But it seems to start out with 256MB of ram, and crashes right away. Anyway to have it start with more ram?

[stantropics]

@scooke Latest MR is not merged yet. I am increasing RAM in this one:
https://git.cloudron.io/doodlemania2/pixelfed/-/merge_requests/4/diffs?commit_id=bba93ea1da4da8c83388014361ea85db120b1bb3

However, my first test shows that it is still not enought. For me, this only happens after setup. After this it runs smooth, even with 256MB of RAM.

[scooke]

@stantropics Interesting, yes, I noticed the same thing. But I increased the ram anyway to 2048.

[stantropics]

@scooke That is what I do, but it might not be possible for users with smallers instances.

[scooke]

@stantropics true

[girish]

Thanks a lot I will take a look soonish. Looks like all the hard works is done!

[doodlemania2]

I've merged that in @stantropics ... @girish may not accept it for production given it uses /app/data, but maybe!

[mattp]

Hi, based on this thread it seems PixelFed might be headed to the App Store? If yes, is there a ballpark on timing? I'm stoked to add this but trying to decide whether I should wait for the App Store or do it manually now.

[doodlemania2]

Yep! I hear they are working on it soonish. +@girish FYI

[murgero]

@mattp Honestly I'd wait. If you need ActivityPub right now, Nextcloud has an addon you can install to enable it. Which would allow you to speak to friendica, Matodon, pleroma, etc etc.

Then once this is in the appstore, you can move your data.

[girish]

@doodlemania2 I have started the work here https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/pixelfed-app

[girish]

Pixelfed is now published in unstable Thanks a lot @doodlemania2 , I will lock this thread. I have created a category for pixelfed under apps.